HW3-drafting-viz
1. Which option do you plan to pursue?
I plan to pursue option 1, infographic!
2. Restate your question(s). Has this changed at all since HW #1? If yes, how so?
My overarching question is: How do hover flies compare to bumble bees as pollinators?
Sub-questions:
- Other than bees, what are the most observed / “busiest” pollinators? (Hint: the answer is hover flies)
- How to hover flies shine in ways that bees don’t? While bumble bees stick close to their homes, hover flies travel very long distances, pollinating populations of plants that are far from one another and helping increase genetic biodiversity and healthy plants!
- What meadow species do bumble bees pollinate the most vs which species do hover flies pollinate the most? For both bees and hover flies, the top 3 visited species are native plants. The most visited plant by hover flies is the 18th most abundant in the meadows, which I find very curious!
My questions have changed a lot since HW #1. Originally I was interested in examining potential pollination trends over time. With more exploration, that question felt quite broad with little interesting results, so I narrowed my scope to focus on unsung pollination heroes! Bees are cute and all (also, I recognize, very important) but they aren’t the only little workers helping us out in major ways. And who doesn’t love an underdog?
3. Explain which variables from your data set(s) you will use to answer your question(s), and how.
My data set shows pollinator species interactions. I am using the variables for plant species (pltsp_code), pollinator types, and interactions (no_int) to visualize how many times my pollinators of interest are visiting each plant species, as well as how often each pollinator is observed pollinating.
4. Viz Inspiration
One element that I knew I wanted to include from the beginning was an adaptation of a pie chart where the pie slices are shaped like petals, with larger quantities represented by larger petals. Here is an example of something similar to what I was thinking:
I actually found this post on stack overflow where they make an extremely similar plot. I hope to adapt that code for my viz!
Another viz I really loved is this one from Georgios Karamanis portfolio:
I had planned to make a few bar plots for my infographic, and they represent different species. Could be really fun to have the bars be represented by sketches of the plants they represent, given enough time!